Alcohol and Human health

Instructors

What impact does alcohol have on the body? From a ‘hangover’ to cirrhosis this course, Alcohol and human health, looks at the harmful effects of alcohol both in the short and long term.

After studying this course, you should be able to:

describe the effects that ethanol in the blood has on the body – specifically the effect on drivers’ judgement at blood-alcohol concentrations near the legal limit for driving and the serious effects of blood-alcohol concentrations in excess of 200 mg/100 ml

describe the short-term effects experienced following excessive alcohol consumption. Comment on the relationship between these complex effects and ethanol metabolites or congeners, the various ‘remedies’ adopted, and that the physiological basis for these economically important short-term harmful effects remains poorly understood

discuss some of the long-term harmful effects of drinking excessive alcohol with specific reference to the three stages of alcoholic liver disease and central and peripheral nervous system damage

discuss fetal alcohol syndrome, describing the main effects on the fetus and some of the factors that can make research into this disorder more complex.

Course Curriculum

How alcohol causes short and long term harmful effects

The biological effects of ethanol

00:20:00

Hangover

Physical disturbances

00:20:00

Psychological and sleep disturbances

00:05:00

Chemical Factors

00:10:00

Long-Term problems from chronic alcoholism

Alcoholic liver disease

00:20:00

Nervous System

Nervous System damage

00:10:00

Alcohol syndrome

Fetal alcohol syndrome

00:20:00

Treatment

Treatment and What works in helping people to stop or reduce their alcohol intake?